The Amazon River has seen its ranges in Colombia diminished by as a lot as 90 %, a authorities company mentioned Thursday, as South America faces a extreme and widespread drought.
The river — the world’s greatest by quantity and which additionally flows by way of components of Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname — has been laborious hit by the drought that has seen wildfires unfold throughout the continent.
“The water degree has decreased between 80 and 90 % within the final three months resulting from drought brought on by local weather change,” Colombia’s Nationwide Unit for Catastrophe Danger Administration (UNGRD) mentioned in an announcement.
The dearth of water was significantly impacting Indigenous communities who rely on the river for meals and transport, it added.
AFP has noticed boats stranded round Leticia, capital of the southern Amazonas state, in latest days, with massive swathes of land uncovered by low water ranges.
Town, close to the borders with Brazil and Peru, is a crucial buying and selling put up alongside the Amazon River.
Its residents say that is the worst drought in at the least half a century.
Europe’s Copernicus Ambiance Monitoring Service mentioned this week that wildfire exercise in South America this yr has been “markedly above common” particularly within the Amazon area and the Pantanal wetlands.
Fires are burning in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia.
Ecuador, which is determined by hydroelectric energy, is going through extreme power shortages from its worst drought in six many years, and has carried out rolling blackouts and put 20 of its 24 provinces on purple alert.
In Brazil, thick plumes of smoke have clouded main cities equivalent to Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with fumes at occasions wafting throughout the border to Argentina and Uruguay.
Colombia’s capital Bogota has been rationing municipal water for months.
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